Pratibimb Aug-Sep 2014

PRATIBIMBThe Reflection Of Management

Finance | General Management | Human Resources | Marketing | Health Care | Systems | Operations

August - September Issue A Student Initiative

D i s h a

FINOMENAL

The BloombergStory

Dialogues withIndustry Magnates

TAPMI

T. A. PAI MANAGEMENT INSTITUTEManipal, Karnataka

About TAPMIT. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) is a premier management institute situated in Manipal

and is well known for its academic rigor & faculty-student interaction. The Institute has been

recently ranked amongst top 1 per cent of B-schools in India & 2nd in the South Zone by The

Week Magazine.

Founded by the visionary, Late Shri. T. A. Pai, TAPMI’s mission is to provide much needed

impetus to the task of building professional management capability in the country. In the process,

it has also played a role in strengthening the existing educational and health infrastructure of

Manipal.

Our Mission“To excel in post-graduate management education, research and practice”.

Means:

• By nurturing and developing global wealth creators and leaders.

• By continually benchmarking ourselves against best in class institutions.

• By fostering continuous learning and reflection, achievement orientation, creative

interdependence and respect for diversity.

Value Bounds:

• Holistic concern for ethics, environment and society.

PRATIBIMB | AUG-SEP 2014 | 2

"Pratibimb", through its elite and lettered articles is rightly focused andforward looking. The write ups included in the issues by the industry expertsare thought provoking and give the satisfaction of a good read. I truly believein the magazine's role and responsibility in eliciting the thought processes ofthe students and getting them at par with the current market trends. Iencourage the students, faculty and industry experts to utilize this magazinein order to gain a greater understanding and better know-how.This special issue is focused on 'DISHA 2014' - The largest HR Conclave inIndia and 'Finomenal 2014' - The Finance Conclave during which weinaugurated the country's largest Bloomberg Finance Lab here at TAPMI.I'm sure the efforts of the students team and the faculty in materializing themagazine will be appreciated by one and all. May you have a good read

Dr. R C NatarajanDirector, TAPMI

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE


FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

THE TEAM

STUDENT EDITORIAL BOARD

Debayan Bhattacharjee

Debidatta Satapathy

Deepanwita Nandi

Harshavardhan Rajendrababu

Pallavi Prasad

FACULTY ADVISORY BOARD

Prof. Aparna Bhat

Prof. Chowdari Prasad

Prof. R C Natarajan

Prof. Seena Biju

Prof. Vidya Pratap

Prof. Vinod Madhavan


It’s been buzzing activities here at TAPMI all of last

two months. Two of our flagship events ‘DISHA’ &

‘FINOMENAL’ saw an influx of some of the brightest

minds of the industry with a rich turnover of

experience stories and professional advices! Meet

the minds and the teams that made it happen!

Our cover stories include two exclusive interviews

with Chairpersons Prof. (Col) K J James and Prof

Madhu Veeraraghavan. Get to know what drives

them and keeps their team motivated while they

speak of their respective events.

With two very intriguing themes ‘Talent Race in

Emerging Economies-will India win?’ – DISHA and

“Financial Innovation: Sustainability Vs

Vulnerability” - FINOMENAL, the only dearth

experienced during the two conclaves was that of

time! This issue is also dedicated to envisaging the

thoughts & opinions delivered at the conclaves!

We bring you the perspectives and standpoints of 15

experts from a spectrum of industries with an

invitation to a gen-broadening and inspiring reading

experience!

Compliments to the team of editors for their good

work as they continue to grow in their efforts to

consolidate and disseminate valuable reading to the

family of business scholars!

Keep reading, Keep reflecting!

Dr. Seena Biju

Ex-Officio Editor-in-Chief

CONTENTS

Cover Story

Making Bloomberg Happenwith Prof Madhu Verraraghavan

Enabling India’s Largest HR Conclavewith Col. P. S. James

The Inside Story

Development of Capital Markets in IndiaBy Mr Binoy Samuel, CFO. Geojit BNP Paribas

Different Elements under TreasuryBy Mr Ganesh K, SVP - Treasury and Corporate Development, DRL

Employee Engagement and Talent Acquisitionin Financial Sector

By Mr Mohit Shetty, AVP-HR, Reliance Capital Asset Management

Business Transformation and Change ManagementBy Mr Rajat Jain, Managing Director, Xerox India Ltd.

The Great Debate

Will India WinDisha Edition

Regulation v/s InnovationFinomenal Special

7

10

12

13

16

17

14

18


CONTENTS

In a Dialogue

Karuna Kumar VempalaHead Acquisition, Cigniti Technologies

Raghavendra KV.P. and Head HR, Infosys BPO

Amitabh KumarHead HR, NEC

Dipti DasHead HR-South Asia, Aramex

Suraj ChettriHead HR, Airbus

Prem VelayudanHR Director & Employee Relations Leader - APAC, CISCO

Sridhar KrishnamurthyCo-Founder & Director, Kelsa Solutions

Ranjana AnandDirector – HR, Optimal Strategix

Prabhakar PatilJoint Director, SEBI

22

24

26

28

29

30

32

34

36



Making

BLOOMBERG

Happen!

Madhu

Veeraraghavan

Professor and Area Chair

(Accounting, Economics and

Finance), TAPMI

As spoken to Debayan

Bhattacharjee

Let’s begin by asking you about

the TAPMI Finance Lab –the

conception of the idea, the story

preceding it, the challenges faced

in the process and significance of having such a facility TAPMI.

The conception of the lab goes back a year, when I joined TAPMI. The Director, on a tour to the

US, visited Business Schools where they were equipped with Finance Labs, and we then

discussed the possibility of replicating the same at TAPMI.

Initially we had a product called Cogenesis, which is a type of newswire. The Trust swiftly

approved for Bloomberg.

Soon, I coordinated with the experts at Bloomberg to keep the ball rolling here. The architects

were identified a room in the second floor of K.K Pai block. Things fell into place by late April

and the critical part of the work started in June. Along with the construction team, I set a target of

3 months to complete establishment up of the Lab. The Bloomberg Lab was successfully

completed in August.

The launch of the Bloomberg Lab was magnificent. Mr. Nayan Mehta, CFO, Bombay Stock

Exchange was honored to be the Chief Guest for the launch along with star studded list of

industry experts, CFOs, CEOs and Analysts.

At Finomenal 2014, Samnidhy was officially floated, a mutual fund envisioned to be run like a

business entity with a CFO, a CEO, CMO; it is principally intended to give students an

experience of running a corporate show. Samnidhy is a great opportunity for students to learn


‘ ’Finomenal

SMIF is actually not unique. There are two schools in India that have it - one is IIM Lucknow,

how to handle money. In finance, there always lies a disconnect between the theory and the

practice of finance. Hence now at TAPMI, we expect these initiatives to extensively bridge this

gap and help us go a long way up.

Next, we launched was course, namely SMIC (Student Managed Investment Course), where 36

students were to be involved in it. Each student would be given INR 25000 worth real money to

invest in the market - if they lose we adjust it with their fixed deposit and if they gain then they

share 50-50 with TAPMI. It goes to an endowment in TAPMI. So a very interesting course

outline was drafted and 36 students were picked. There is no final exam for this course, you

either burn your fingers or you make money. We wanted this to be a real experience. No other

school actually provides this in India. Schools outside India which provide similar platforms to

students are Stanford, Monash, HKU, etc.

In the forthcoming future, we are planning to get the Bloomberg training team here to train all

Finance people and non-Finance faculty members, and bring the real world to the classroom.

Once the lab has been set up what is your continued relationship with

Bloomberg? Does it end there?

TAPMI has agreed to have an annual subscription worth INR fifty lakh for the Bloomberg

licenses. Bloomberg also has a magnificent support team called WebEx. They conduct training

sessions. Every Wednesday they have WebEx remote sessions conducted by people who live and

breathe Bloomberg. Here at TAPMI, we have two Bloomberg champions, whose job it is to

promote the use of Bloomberg across the 95 finance students.

They have people who assist faculty all around in designing and integrating Bloomberg into the

course, esp. in a courses like portfolio management, security analysis, international finance,

capital market courses. Theory is isn’t as much fun alone. But when this is put together, it makes

a profound influence. Students enjoy it and understand things better.

The Bloomberg database has tons of information. They have used it, internalized it, tailored the

information, and then are attempting to sell it to us. Without Bloomberg, they would have

researched on the web, made reports, and collect data. But the credibility of the data may be in

question or the same may be outdated or not readily available. A Bloomberg subscription serves,

you with all the data, some probably we didn’t even know existed. Bloomberg delivers at a high

level of reliability, hence foremost players of the financial industry, including banks and schools

have a Bloomberg terminal. It’s a win-win situation for TAPMI. The annual investment of INR

fifty lakhs may seem huge, but the returns are obtained in the form of brand image it creates and

the industry readiness users may experience here at TAPMI. It simply cannot be quantified.

Let us talk a bit more about the SMIF. Where do you draw a line between it

being a business versus being an educational experience? Also, what is the

level of autonomy that the students get in terms of faculty? How far are they


overseeing on this?

and other IMT Ghaziabad. Our model is different to theirs. In their model, it is basically the

faculty that does everything. I wanted this to be reversed. What we have done is put up an

advisory board which other schools don’t have. SMIF now has a very powerful set of people in

the finance industry who are going to be advisors to SMIF team. The advisory Board actually has

the power to veto a recommendation an executive makes. That connection can actually bring the

industry closer to TAPMI.

As far as the question on business versus learning is concerned, this is a superb learning

experience. No question that it is also a business. Because these people are going to handle your

(students’) money. It is not a lot of money but at the same time if you are handling somebody

else’s money, you better know how to handle that money. So your unpreparedness, ill equipped

knowledge would be devastating. This is a student run activity, run by students, for students. And

so every student who puts his money is learning something. Now you are not playing with just

your money, you are playing with 400 other students. They are all looking up to the SMIF board

to make sensible, rational decisions.

What is the plan with regard to continuity and passing on the Finance Lab and

Samnidhy to the junior batch once the seniors graduate and leave the campus?

We want some first year students to be involved in the SMIF Committee. It is imperative that the

first year students are extremely interested to receive a hands-on experience. I will ensure that

there is a perfect succession plan.

What is the future you see for the TAPMI Finance Lab as well as Samnidhy?

What I wish to see is the TAPMI Finance Lab integrated in as many finance subjects that we

teach. There should be no finance course that gets taught at TAPMI where TAPMI finance lab is

not being used.

My vision is to see that faculty take ownership, of the facility, of the resources that we have put

together. Students then should shrink gap between the theory and practice of finance. The

industry will observe that TAPMI graduates are certainly different to others because of the

industry exposure they have received.

In regard to Samnidhy, it is probably a more challenging task than the finance lab, because in

Samnidhy, there is going to be a lot of turnover, students are going to leave and the new batch

comes in. The finance lab can only run where there is support or where there is ownership both

from faculty and from students.

My desire and my goal is to see that everybody uses it at TAPMI, and make learning much more

fun, for students and faculty.

Enabling India’s

Biggest HR Conclave

Col P. S. James

Professor and Area Chair –

Human Resources

As spoken to Pallavi Prasad

Disha 2014 – How do you think it

has evolved over the years, and

what do you think are the factors

that contributed to it?

Disha has evolved over the years; from a

two day singular themed event with a

substantial number of HR experts as guests,

this time it was larger in scope, and was

spread over six days with more than sixty

HR officials, who were able to schedule

their travel to Badagabettu with ease due to the elaborate duration of the event. A diverse set of

themes were discussed with great enthusiasm by the guests as well as students.

The student committees contributed their best efforts to make Disha 2014 a success. Disha 2014

gave a platform for students to interact with very senior HR managers for the industry. The

students had a lot of buy-in, which they derived with portraying lot of fervour and energy. The

HR forum and Placement Committee joined hands together to attract the best talent to TAPMI,

where the latter shared the corporate world connections it had gathered in due course of time.

What have been the takeaways for the students, the management, as well as

the Corporate HR guests who came down to TAPMI for Disha 2014?

For the students, the takeaway from Disha 2014 has been first, emphasis on talent, second, an

insight into what the companies are looking for, and third that the term ‘talent’ is not generic in

nature, in the sense that every human being is talented in one or many ways. But they also learnt

that there is a need to gather specific talents relevant to organizational or industrial needs at the

moment.

The second takeaway was that it has given confidence to an organization that it can bring

eminent personalities and great talent from the field of HR to TAPMI for interaction with the

students. Most organizations believe in recruiting the right talent, even if it is from a far-off


‘ ’Disha

place like Manipal, but we saw the actual implementation of that during Disha. In fact, it is a

significant demonstration of that.

For Faculty, I believe it was a wonderful opportunity to interact with several corporate people,

and the industry-academic collaboration. The fairly comfortable lunch breaks were favourable for

interactions between the faculty and the guests.

For the managers themselves, they were quite elated, primarily because they could meet several

of their colleagues and peers from other industries, and discuss on theme of talent management.

They were able to exchange notes, and more importantly, got the opportunity to have individual

discussions with students. All of them participated in the panel discussions, 2 to 3 of which was

scheduled each day of the six days. Also, they were asked to deliver a guest lecture to a smaller

group of 40 to 50 students for an intensive interaction. These two activities kept them very much

engaged and involved throughout the time.

Considering the present has been a successful undertaking, what do you now

see as the future for Disha?

The future of Disha would be very much on the same lines. I would say that for the next 2-3

years we should work on stabilizing the present model before we look at something different. We

could improve our efforts to increase the industry closure. It would also be a good idea to have a

short presentation of TAPMI to the guests at their arrival, although everything about TAPMI is

discussed with them essentially on an individual basis, or when the students come. But perhaps

there is still scope for some senior faculty, the Dean or the Director himself to give short

presentations to the guests. Although with the given framework of their flexible timings, I am not

really sure to what extent we may be able to implement this idea. Getting a theme for next year

would also be a challenge, I believe.

One more thing that I feel is that Disha is a platform for everyone to take-off, and not for just the

HR students. It is perhaps just a perception that the guests here are HRs, and therefore only for

the HR students. But the talent and people that they pick up are across functions and industries.

Also, not many students are aware that there are some solid databases that TAPMI has, and I

firmly believe that if they use it they will be much better prepared to join the industry.


Development Of Capital Markets In India

Mr Binoy Samuel (CFO, Geojit BNP Paribas)


‘ ’Finomenal

Mr Binoy Samuel, an exemplary participant of

Finomenal 2014, shared his views on “Capital

market – how it developed in India” with

students. In accordance with the theme, he

took the students through the history of

evolution of the Indian Capital Market where

in the pre- 1991 era trading was at that time

limited to a dozen brokers. This selectiveness

gave room for scams and highlighted the

challenges of liberalisation. But with the

introduction of technology and governing

bodies like NSE and NSEL, the Capital

Markets industry was changed for ever.

Digitalization and technology transformed the

system to a very fast one and magnanimously

increased the volatility at the same time. In last

decade it has been observed that there has been

a paradigm shift in Indian capital market. The

application of many reforms and developments

in Indian capital market has made the Indian

capital market comparable with the

international capital markets. Today the market

features a developed regulatory mechanism

and a modern market infrastructure with

growing market capitalization, market

liquidity, and mobilization of resources.

Of late, a new category of markets,

commodities market has been introduced in

India. A lay person cannot understand

technicality of financial instrument, but with

the advent of commodities market even a lay

person feels motivated to participate in

something that appealed to them-commodities

they use.

He asserted that with the volatility of growth

of Capital Markets, there is a lot of scope of

penetration into the weaker social sector of our

society. This will invite the next step after

banking i.e. participation in the Capital

Markets. Concluding the enlightening session

he said that capital market has become very

transparent today and there is a potential for

the Indian market to expand.

Different Elements Under TreasuryMr Ganesh K (Senior VP - Treasury and Corporate

Development, Dr Reddy’s Labs)


As a part of the ongoing TAPMI Finomenal

2014, Mr. Ganesh K, Senior Vice President -

Treasury and Corporate Development, Dr.

Reddy’s Laboratories interacted with the

students regarding the nitty-gritty of treasury

and how it is managed across different firms.

He began the session with different elements

under treasury – cash, liquidity, debt, capital

and forex. According to him, managing funds

is the elementary function of treasury and is

the toughest part.

Further on, he talked about the different

functions of finance – corporate finance, sales

support finance, supplier finance, structured

finance. He gathered more interest from the

audience when he suggested that forex is an

attractive and a much more fashionable option

for students.

With respect to a student’s question, he

explained how bureaucracy of India is a

hindrance in a company’s operations, and how

countries with fewer regulations are becoming

attractive places for investment and operations.

More into the session, he explained how

treasury starts in company from defining the

capital structure, leverage, pay-out i.e.

dividends or buyback and then, corporate

finance, which forms the heart of treasury and

that is what defines a company.

Mr Ganesh concluded the session with a brief

overview about a merger and acquisition

process – pre-deal, deal and post-deal phases

and how it is different from treasury.

According to him, M&A’s are mainly done to

feed a few needs of a company like exploring

new geographies, inducing brand recall and

focusing on technology.

Regulations v/s Innovation

Finomenal 2014 started off on a bright note

with its first panel discussion, where four

industry stalwarts collaborated to give their

perspectives on the topic – Financial

Innovation - Sustainability V/s Vulnerability.

Mr. Amit Trivedi (Executive Director, Royal

Bank of Scotland) opened the discussion by

asserting that in the financial world,

innovation is inevitable; the question is how

sustainable it is. He believes that there is no

way to completely eliminate risk, at best, we

can only mitigate it. He was of a strong

Dr. Prabhakar Patil (Joint Director,

Securities and Exchange Board of India)

cited that sustenance of financial products or

schemes in the current environment is the real

challenge faced by this sector and whether

these changes or innovation can be regulated

or not, even with the available sophisticated

tools. Market dynamics must be taken into

consideration while focusing on innovation;

otherwise the harm caused by such practices

affects the functioning of the complete system.

opinion that innovation is important, but what

is more important is to innovate responsibly.

Mr. Viswanathan Iyer (Director, National

Australian Bank) shared his opinion that any

innovation that enhances customer service,

reduces costs and reduces risks is welcome.

He asserted that the biggest innovation in the

financial sector is technology and that

innovation along with regulation is the mantra

to financial stability and success. He expressed

with certainty that regulation is necessary for

any sector. It is more important that we know

that regulations do not stifle innovation. The

idea is not to complicate but to keep it simple,

and innovation is the key to that problem.

Mr. D. Ravishankar (Founder Director,

Brickwork Ratings) professed that the only

driving force for the companies is innovation,

which not only affects the financial domain

but other domains as well. He believes that the

impact that technology creates in the financial

world on various stakeholders is the real

measure of innovation.


‘ ’Finomenal


He strongly believes that evaluation of any

financial product can be done only when it

benefits all the stakeholders.

Mr. Dhaval Vakharia (VP, Avendus PE

Investment Advisors) strongly believed that

in this tug of war between innovation and

regulation it was all about the way regulations

are implemented. A strong policy, a strong

form of regulation needs to be implemented

such that scams such as Coalgate and 2G don’t

happen again.

Mr. K. Sridhar Seshadri (Financial

the financial sector in the country and what

mechanisms must be deployed to safeguard

the interests of the stakeholders in the process.

It was an enriching experience for the students

to understand the working dynamics of the

financial world especially from such

distinguished panelists who inspired and

motivated them.

Controller, DCB Bank) was of the opinion that

“Innovation and regulation are co-existent”, as

ultimately all the participants are interested in

developing the market. If there is growth each

one of us has stake in it and each one of us

grows with the economy. Dilemma is in

deciding that which one is prior innovation or

regulation. To build upon his point he

elaborated by saying that innovators should

not take liberty of a regulator being there to

protect them and try to innovate in a way that

minimizes flaws.

Remarking on the credible regulatory policies

of India he laid the fact that India didn’t

crumble in the South East Asian economic

crisis just because of the effective regulations

by RBI in terms of sensitive sector exposure.

He mentioned that with globalization the small

investors, which are a major part of Indian

financial markets are more prone to risks and

hence need better protection.

The discussion touched upon many important

and critical issues which are being faced by

Talent Acquisition in Financial Sector

Mr. Mohit Shetty - AVP of Human Resources

at Reliance Capital Asset Management started

his career with payroll outsourcing, statutory

compliance, benchmarking, designing

incentive and reward framework and policy

formation as well as execution.

With 16 years of experience in various sectors

such as hospitality, BPO, telecom,

entertainment and financial services and

extensive work exposure in – talent

management (career and succession planning),

compensation, performance management,

training & development and talent acquisition,

he engaged the students in an enlightening

discussion.

He started by speaking on employee

engagement and talent acquisition in financial

sector. He asserted that a person should choose

HR as his/her career only if the person feels

that he/she can contribute to the organization’s

goal and growth. It is very important for the

HR personnel to be pushy, aggressive and

direct. Throwing light on engagement, he said

that the engagement should be of a level that

even the operator knows the company’s current

targets and knows how to go about managing

it. He also emphasized on the fact that the

managers and leaders need to know each

employee personally - strengths, and

weaknesses, to be effective managers.

In his closing remarks he shared valuable tips

with the students. He advised everyone to start

investing young, starting from this day itself,

and asserted that each and every one can

become rich. He imbued students to invest in

proper portfolios, which involved reading the

companies properly and analyzing them well.

He closed his debate by galvanizing students to

not work for money but having money work

for you.

Mr. Mohit Shetty - AVP – HR, Reliance Capital Asset

Management


‘ ’Disha

Business Transformation and Change

Management

Mr. Rajat Jain, Managing Director, XEROX

India Ltd., engaged the TAPMI fraternity in a

highly interactive session on ‘Business

Transformation and Change Management’-

food for thought for aspiring managers.

He opened the session with a quote by John F.

Kennedy – “Change is the law of life. And

those who only look to the past or present are

certain to miss the future”

The essence of the quote being that with the

pace of change that we see in the world today,

the past has become an unreliable tool to

predict the future; and rightly stated so.

He asserted that it is all about getting future

ready, and he strongly believed that 'Data

Analytics' will play a crucial part in making

this happen. The visionary that he is, he spoke

about a time in he sees in the future when a

person will call a nearby pizza place and the

pizza-guy will know everything about the

caller - ranging from cholesterol level to the

last holiday trip etc. all through the mobile

number of the caller. This was the kind of

transformation he sees coming in, in the

industries in the foreseeable future.

On the organizational level, he took a stand on

the practices of any organization stating that

strategies on customer retention will become a

game changer in coming times because you

have to know the needs of your customers.

And finally, he closed the seminar by adding

that transformation is not easy; it requires

conviction; it is essential in order to meet the

needs of Generation Z.

Mr Rajat Jain (MD, XEROX India Ltd.)


Will India Win?

Dr. Asit Mohapatra (Director HR,

Raymond) added that critical gaps have been

created in the Indian talent base. We live in a

VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex

Ambiguous) world that is filled with

complexity. And currently there is a shortage

of talented engineers in India. And this is so

because they want become managers.

in the Indian workforce which only needs to

be tapped.

Ms. Sarojani Gaikwad (Director, People

Business) expressed that a lot of work goes in

talent assessment and leadership development

of people and it is the organizations which

need to take proactive measures to solve this.

Employees should be able to manage and be

With the biggest HR conclave – a 6 day meet -

happening, at TAPMI, the leading HR industry

experts took the stage and put forth their

arguments on the set theme of Onimia "The

Talent Race in Emerging Economies- Will

India Win?"

Mr. Sridhar Krishnamurthy (Co-Founder

and Director, Kelsa Solutions) opened the

discussion by taking up the 5 C’s of talent risk

- Capacity risk, Capability risk, Cost risk,

Connection risk and Compliance risk. He

asserted that in order to overcome this barrier,

a nation needs to use opportunities like

adopting different organizational practices and

exploring new work models.

Ms. Ruth Singh (Head HR, Emkay Global

Financial Services Ltd.) eloquently quoted

that India has a challenging journey ahead in

terms of talent acquisition since the core

competencies and capabilities are lacking. She

emphasized on the fact that passion for the job

is a very important criteria as this talent gap

can be bridged only when we choose careers

according to where our heart lies.

Mr Rajat Jain (Managing Director, Xerox

India Ltd.) expressed that with the strong rise

of emerging economies there is now a need to

manage the talent supply chain. The Indian

diaspora has achieved significant success in

the global platform in the last few years and

this shows that there is an immense potential


‘ ’Disha

resilient to changes and expand their risk

taking abilities. There also needs to be agility

in their thinking and execution.

Mr. Clive VanBuerle (Vice-President HR,

ISGN) changed the course of discussion with

his statement that in India there is not a lack of

capacity but of capability. The lacking

capabilities are the situational fluency, the

adaptability and the gap between the

aspirations and patience of the people.

Mr. Piyush Upadhyay (Chief Strategic –HR,

TATA Power) taking a turn on Employee

Value Proposition to attract Multigenerational

Talent began by stating that an organization is

what the organization does, and what values it

inculcates in the employees. Communication

channels are important but execution of values

are most essential

Mr. Marian Jayson (Senior HR Manager,

HealthCare Global) expressed that an

employee should identify with the beliefs and

values of the organization in which he works.

Formulating an EVP that satisfies various age

groups in a workforce is extremely tricky as

one’s needs are not static.


Mr. Gangadharayya Pashupatimath

(Director Engineering, Actuant India Pvt

Ltd) contributed to the discussion by stating

that EVP is all about how you deal with

people. Different kinds of people from

different cultures and countries involved in

same project makes it difficult to draft an EVP

which is applicable to all cultures.

Mr. Shripad Thosar (Head of shared

services HR, L&T Hydrocarbon) stated that

there are multiple generations working in

tandem today. With the coining of “war for

talent”, talented employees have a choice

when joining an organization just like a

customer has a choice while picking a service

provider. War for talent is more relevant today

than ever before.

Ms. Priyanka (Associate VP-People

Services, Davita) believes that Employee

Value Proposition has been passively present.

Biggest gap in an organization is that EVP is

crated to attract employees but once the

employees join, it is equally important to

implement it too. It should align with the

mission and vision of the company.

Santosh Mishra

Director -HR, 24x7

Innovation Labs

Mohinish Vaidya

Director - HR, UST

Global

Ivy Saldhana

Director HR,

Actuant India

Nagdev B

Director HR,

Aptean Global

Krishnan

V Head Talent

Development, HCL

Karuna Vempala

Head Talent Aquisition,

Cigniti Technologies

Suraj Chettri

Head of HR, AirbusVidya Muralidharan

Head HR - After

Market, Ashok

Leyland

Diptii Das

Head HR - South

Asia, Aramex

Amitabh Kumar

Head HR, NEC India

Siddhartha Chandoke

Director-Talent

Acquisition, Metlife

GOSC

Dr. Asit Mohapatra

Director HR,

Raymond

Rajat Jain

MD, XEROX

India

Sridhar

Co-Founder & Director,

Kelsa Solutions

Prem Velayudan

HR Director - APAC,

CISCO

Raghavendra

V.P. and Head HR,

Infosys BPO

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Dr. Ashok Aggarwal

CFO, Escorts

Securities

Binoy Samuel

CFO, Geojit BNP

Paribus

Charu Gulati

Associate Director-HR,

Axis Risk Consulting

TV Krishnamurthi

Group HR Head,

Titan

Nayan Mehta

CFO, Bombay

Stock Exchange

Prabhakar Patil

Joint Director,

SEBI

Sarojani Gaikwad

Director, People

Business

Rajesh Sahay

VP & Head HR,

Wipro Consumer Care

Aditya Pratap

MD, S&P Capital IQ

Vishwanathan Iyer

Director, National

Australian Bank

Amit Trivedi

Executive Director,

Royal Bank Of

Scotland

Dhaval Vakharia

VP , Avendus PE

Investment

Advisors

Sunil Wariar

Sr. VP-HR, Future

Generali

Vijayanti Margassery

Head-Talent Management

& Organization

Development, Biocon

Ramunni Nair

VP HR&GA, Renault

Nissan

Pritpal Kular

VP - HR, General

Motors

the US. I have basically been hiring people from all across the globe including India.

In India we have 80% people who are already trained and aware of the industry;

and only 20% of them need training. Where as in other countries hiring is a challenging activity,

because people are very different.

Do you feel there is a lack of talent in India?

When you look for talent you will mostly get talented people. Only 20% of the times you will

have to train them. So, I think the talent gap is only that much.

Can you tell us about the development programs that you have conducted to

nurture and motivate talent?

Generally for IT companies we have a different set of plans. We basically find out what are the

skills that the company wants, what kind of the talent pool do we have, and of course what the

customer wants.

Based on these we conduct tests and generate reports-skill matrix report and talent reports.

There are many other industries in the corporate world like insurance and

automobiles. Do you find difficulty in hiring and training employees for these

industries?

Whenever I look for people for certain jobs, I connect their specialty with the job profile. If I

A dialogue with

Karuna Kumar

Vempala

Head Acquisition, Cigniti

Technologies

By Shweta Varma

You come from a diverse work

background and you have

worked in many different

countries. How do you think

other countries are different from

India in terms of HR practices

followed?

I’m a talent acquisition person. I work for

countries like Brazil Australia UK, and


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were to hire someone say for example for the healthcare industry, a person who was previously in

hospital business will be my choice because that person can easily adapt to it. That way I don’t

find much difficulty in hiring and training people.

Another thing that I look for is the flexibility in the employees. I need to establish their learning

curve and realize the appetite they have for working.

You have worked across the globe with different cultures and nowadays there

is a cross-culture environment in all organizations, how do you approach the

challenges that come along with the merging of cultures?

I hire people across the globe, so the challenges we face are mostly the language challenges, the

cultural challenges, and lastly the time challenges.

We have to manage it all. It is the best and the only way is to be on top of everything.

What are the opportunities in the field of Data analytics according to you?

Where do you see this field going?

Data warehousing is really big these days. Managing big and real data is the real challenge.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. you name it, they all have huge data; millions of people

chatting, sharing, and uploading every minute.

It is a booming industry, and we are looking at multiple career opportunities in this area.

As an HR expert would you like to give any advice for future HR aspirants and

managers?

HR is a booming field. HR people from various industries are becoming partners everyday

because they are not just employees, they are comrades.

They are the main reason for excellence in the company and it is for that I advise people to take

HR as their field; especially the B-school students.


You have a really diverse work

experience. You have worked in so

many industries. Can you tell us

how the HR function in IT sector

is different from the other sector?

I don’t think the HR function varies much

in different sectors because ultimately it is

people who you deal with. The ability to

connect with people is the key. The

industry comes later.

Sticking to IT, don’t you feel that maximum attrition rate is seen mostly in this

sector?

I don’t think so. The reason why I do not find this to be true is because in the IT sector the

opportunities are plenty; and, wherever opportunities are aplenty, attrition will be present. In the

IT sector we face mass talent acquisition. People from all over the country work in this sector,

every industry gets involved, and new industries join this process. In every sector where you see

growth or find economy booming, you will also find attrition. So, it is not limited to IT industry

alone. The insurance industry sees a 110 - 115% attrition.

Taking the growth angle, do you feel that the HR functions of any industry are

the direct result of the relationship with the economic environment?

No, it is irrespective of how the economic situation is. It is how you connect with the people-in

terms of interactions, growth, and learning. It is not state of the industry alone that impacts the

functions today.

An HR person should try to look at what it is it that will make a person come and join the

industry, what are the conditions that will you get the individual to experience and how you are

going to make it meaningful to him or her are what counts.

It is true that when you hire in bulk that there are opportunities available elsewhere too because

of choices available to people now. How you differentiate here is on your ability to connect, and

your ability to provide meaning to the aspirations of an individual. You need the three C’s-

compensation, career, and care and comfort. The essence is to give an individual respect; give

A dialogue with

Raghavendra K.

V.P. and Head HR, Infosys

BPO

By Shweta Varma .


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him or her platform where he or she can reach to his/her potential.

Now that we are discussing jobs, it is a common belief that in India it is still a

job race rather than talent race. How do you think we can overcome this

barrier of culture in an Indian organization?

With all things equal, everybody will chase after money is what you believe is the popular trend.

I agree, but once you reach a particular level there comes a standing point when money is not

sufficient. And this is not typical to India only because want will always continue to exist. But the

opportunity for learning, and the opportunity for development are what really count in the end.

Getting a little specific here, what are the challenges that you face as the HR

head of your company?

Attrition is a challenge at every point of time. My competitor ABC who is paying more is a

challenge. In constraints such as this what you do to make the difference is what counts. For

example, my previous CEO used to talk about GDP – growth, differentiation and people, and my

present CEO talks about the three R’s - relevance, respect and reach. A person needs to see the

growth of the organization and him.

It is seen that there exists a skill gap in every organization. In what innovative

ways, you think, can an organization adapt or evolve to overcome this

problem?

An organization is one unit; there are lot many players available to bridge the skill gap. Today,

the industry has to play the activist’s role, but apart from that, the government and the NGOs

need to come together and make a difference.

The educational institutes believe that their focus should be majorly on getting conceptual

knowledge; but if students are not taught how to actually apply conceptual knowledge and

principles we will have a problem in getting the right skills for our work, which I believe is

getting incorporated.

Speaking of B-schools, these days we observe this trend where mostly the

engineers that go for an MBA. In your opinion, do you find that other skills

are not developed is or that there is not much demand from the industry. What

you think can be a solution for such a trend?

No easy answers. I think people go where they see an opportunity. Today, everybody moves in a

particular direction; the focus is more on IQ than EQ.

Like, in the year 2008-2009 everybody wanted to move out of the private sector and get into the

public sector. In an economy which is developing, these type of imbalances continue to exist.


A dialogue with

Amitabh Kumar

Head HR, NEC

By Raghunandan

You have over 20 years of

experience in the field of HR under

multiple domains like Telecom and

IT industries. What are the various

challenges you faced across these

multiple domains?

From my perspective, HR is a function that

deals with people. People challenges do not

change when one moves from one industry

to another. The changes are in the context in

which these challenges are addressed. The

nature of work in each of the domains is

different – e.g. Telecom is more of an

infrastructure oriented industry. We had

employees working in remote areas,

especially ones involved with telecom towers in God-forsaken places, attending an unfortunate

event of a breakdown in the tower communication. It’s different for a person working in an office

in Bangalore for a software development firm. Thus, nature of job may vary, but in terms of

approach towards the challenges, nothing changes much.

Please share a little information about the current company you are working

in, NEC.

NEC India is a subsidiary of the Japanese corporation, NEC. In the way it is structured in India,

NEC Asia Pacific (APAC) handles 89% of the equity, which is based out of Singapore, and 11%

is directly handled by NEC, Japan. Currently, NEC India has over 400 employees spread across 4

locations – Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. We have a manufacturing unit in Chennai

and two software development centers in Bangalore and Chennai. Additionally, we have sales

headquarters across multiple cities. NEC is headed by a Japanese Managing Director, Mr.

Koichiro Koide. NEC is primarily an operations business with a B2B structure and not a B2C.

That’s why you will not see many visible products from NEC.

NEC is into multiple domains, like multi-media solutions, IT solutions, etc.

Thus, you have differentially profiled people interacting with each other. What

kind of bridge do you create to provide feasibility between them?


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In terms of Organization structure, NEC has a software development division, a carrier and

network division, an enterprise business division, IT platform products and a public safety and a

structural engineering division. Now all the four divisions are very different in operations and

nature. But NEC has a core set of policies which covers the basic code of conduct which are

typically global in nature. These are the common policies along with values and ethics which are

the standard practices. There is no change from one division to another.

NEC also lists a division specific set of policies as well. So, the differentiation is done and

maintained and is typically accustomed by our business unit HR. Hence all the efforts are made

to ensure that the differentiation is maintained and the core values and ethics are not violated.

What is the culture at NEC like? What are the benefits given to the employees

in order to maintain the retention rate, in due course of time?

Typically in a Japanese firm, you join a company at the dawn of your career and you stay there

till you retire. That is the philosophy we bring in from Japan. In India, the markets and

environments are quite different. When I joined NEC in 2010, there were just 10 employees.

Now we are 550, 400 of them on contract basis. And as an organization, there is a lot of focus in

the areas of training and career development activities, helping people move up. In terms of

work culture, it is very open and flexible. As a typical Japanese company, it tends to be a

hierarchical and a lot more protocol oriented. But it is also inclined towards ensuring the

organization process and chain of communication remains open. The decision-making consumes

more time and is based on the consensus principle. One person cannot override all the others

while making decisions. There are stakeholders who will look at things differently and one has

to go to through the process where he convinces each one of the stakeholders.

When prospective employees approach NEC, they may have an engineering or

management background, what is the basic expectation from each one of

them?

It depends on the role the particular individual is hired for. If an engineering background guy is

hired then he will be given more of a technical and service delivery role. People with

management background are generally hired for Sales or Strategy and Business development

role. So as such the roles are clearly demarcated. Even the internal grade structure and career

movement happens in a separate way. Each will have different roles assigned. A management

graduate will have business development roles and engineer may have technical specialist roles.

What are the CSR activities at NEC and how do they use it to improve their

brand value?

NEC India has not done much CSR yet. Although we have had a few blood donation drives. But

NEC worldwide has a strong program called MDD (Make a Difference Drive). As a global

organization, we participate in such activities whenever initiated on a country-wise basis. It may

be a supporting children’s education drive, helping the Tsunami victims or flood victims etc.


A dialogue with

Dipti Das

Head HR-South Asia,

Aramex

By Krishna Chaitanya

What opportunities do companies

like Aramex anticipate with the high

growth of digital technology in areas

such as digital retail, digital

analytics?

I believe at Aramex, and the other companies

that I have worked for, digital technology is

redefining processes. This change has forced

the industry to implement digital technology

in its business. In supply chain management,

digital growth can be of immense help at the operational level, esp. in areas such as security

check of products, security by scanning, etc.

What are the innovative learning prospects for Aramex employees?

I feel innovation exists in every second of the day. Learning from experience is a virtue. One

cannot create innovative learning, but can create a learning culture. This is achieved by

empowering people; each must be encouraged to take a step of innovation in the learning

environment.

What are the challenges you experience in supply-chain-management and

logistics in India?

First, without challenges there is no growth. With double income and shortage of time, more and

more people are shifting towards e-commerce. The supply chain time is shrinking. Thus, your

biggest challenge is to think out of the box – how to re-engineer processes, ensure that process

overlaps are eliminated, and empower every person who is a part of the supply chain.

Does India have sufficient talent base to cope up with the challenges?

There is a surplus of talent in India. The only need is to scan through and extract the right people.

Shortage is created due to impatience shown by firms in filtering through different avenues they

recruit from.

What are your expectations from an MBA graduate?

Our industry is moving away from people who existed in the firm for a long time, and towards

people equipped with technical education. A hands-on approach, common sense, logic and

discipline of processes is what we generally look for. With a formal education, you are expected

to apply learnt concepts, and give back more to the industry than you derive in return.


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A dialogue with

Suraj Chettri

Head HR, Airbus


How do you feel being amongst the

students of TAPMI?

This is my first visit to TAPMI and am quite

impressed by the intellectual awareness and

acumen amongst the students here. I see their

energy and enthusiasm, and it makes me believe

that these students are here to make a difference in

the future. They are smart, sharp and willing to

absorb knowledge.

In your 21 years of experience across

various sectors, what are the challenges

you faced while in transit from each sector to other?

I strongly believe that I have always been in the engineering domain. Every domain has its own

specialities, weaknesses and challenges. But to be able to contribute meaningfully, one must stick

to one’s domain and build expertise.

You were a part of a team that won the Best HR Practices Company Award.

Would you mind sharing some of the best HR practices in place.

To name a few, we introduced the ‘Buddy system’, where-in-which people who are inducted into

the organization, each is tagged with another person with a similar age and experience. We

believe that the first year of an employee with the organization is crucial. If they complete the

first year with content, they stick on to the company for a longer duration. HR personnel have

meetings with the newly inducted employees at the end of every quarter to gauge their comfort

within the company. The feedback is shared with the management at all levels.

What is your view on 360 degree feedback?

The purpose of having any tool for feedback is to ensure some corrective measure is

implemented at the end of each cycle. If nothing is done with the feedback, then there is no point

in taking the same. A feedback system should not be a stand-alone model; it is useful only and

only when it forms a part of the DNA of the organization.

What are the opportunities in the mid-term for Airbus in India?

I think until now, Airbus was focussing on sales. In mid-term, services will become equally

important. Also, there is a huge opportunity in the supply chain management.


A dialogue with

Prem Velayudan

HR Director & Employee

Relations Leader - APAC,

CISCO


How do you feel being in

TAPMI again?

I think it is a fabulous experience

coming back to TAPMI after many

years, especially, getting the feel of this

new campus. When I passed out things

were very different and when I compare

the facilities from that time to what you

have now- the infrastructure, facilities,

quality of students and the interface you

have with the industry, I think it’s

awesome. So TAPMI has come a long way and all I can say is that I feel great coming back here.

You have 22 years of experience, how do you describe your journey across

these diverse industries?

I started with sales and marketing and then moved on to consulting for some time. But for the last

14 years I had been in HR core function. In HR, I have the opportunity to move across various

roles. Currently, this is my eighth year at CISCO.

This is the age of technology. So what measures do you take to upgrade and

update your employees to the latest technologies?

Development for an employee is a critical factor in whichever industry you are in. So we have a

policy of 70-20-10 formula. 10% is learning; which is either classroom or e-learning, because

you continuously need to learn. 20% is a lot of shadowing; you connect with the senior leaders in

the company during the training procedure or you associate with a couple of key projects. This

way you get a lot of exposure to see how things are done differently. For example you have been

in development, then how do you get exposure in sales.

As you grow in an organization you need to have the knowledge of different facets of the

organization, and so you need to start rotating people. 70% is the organization. This helps us

decide on what cutting edge technologies can be brought in, and also how you can generate new


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avenues to enhance your product and services, which help your talent gets.

Did you find any challenges while moving people from engineering fields to

sales fields?

There are always some challenges in the transitions. Firstly, it should be in-line with people’s

development and their aspirations. It’s not just what the company wants to do but it’s a

combination.

You have to choose the right talent; one who has the capability to make this transition and also be

inclined to do new things in the future.

Attrition is the biggest threat to any industry. What measures do you take to

retain the employees?

Build a good culture in the company, be transparent, have a fair assessment system, opportunity

to grow, provide visibility and exposure to clients, and to the corporate world will be some key

areas that help us retain the employees.

Doing simple things but doing them right so that the employees feel good about coming to office

the next day is the mantra. People should be able to see their contributions getting aligned with

the company’s goals.

Big data analysis and Cloud computing are the buzz words today. So what are

the opportunities for people in CISCO in Big data analytics field?

We are a global company. It depends in which location and what technological groups people are

joining in. CISCO is making some radical changes in the technology being used, as the market is

moving so fast.

What are the traits and qualities you expect from a fresh MBA graduate?

First is learnability. The candidate must be open to a new environment, he should be able to talk

to people, and he should be able to use the learning in the MBA in a way such that it makes sense

in the job.

Asking people the right questions, seeking advices, reaching out to people, and learning as much

as possible about the organization and its people might seem trivial, but these are critical things

which would help him in the long run.

What is your opinion about DISHA 2014?

It is a 6 day event and I participated in the 5th day of the event, and still I see a lot of energy. I see

a lot of participation from the industry specialists and great topics for panel discussions. I think

the students will get a different perspective by interacting with people, who are leaders in their

respective industries.


you don’t tend to enjoy what you do. If you enjoy then all other things will fall into the place. All

other things are output of how you enjoy your work. Similarly TAPMI reminds me of a place

where people enjoy their work with dedication. And it is always good to be present amongst hard

working people.

Can you please give us some insights about the HR policies that your company

follows?

Basically Kelsa is a consulting company and we work for several clients across India. Clients

range from large multinational companies to mid-tier companies to small start-ups. We have

close to eighteen people in the organization who work from different centres in India like

Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon even Cochin for that matter. Primarily what we do in

our organization is nothing specific to be honest, we being a consultants allow them to learn and

grow in the organization. There are no specific hours of work but there is only one specific need

that is to look at customers’ requirement and fulfil it. We allow them to do it in their own way.

So, there is a lot of freedom, understanding and appreciation of what we do for our clients. It is

more of a flexible work culture where in quiet a good amount of independence lies in front of the

employees yielding to a better outcome and better employee satisfaction.

Where do you draw boundary between the discipline and the flexibility?

To be honest, a basic requirement for any consulting company is to make its employees enjoytheir work. Also, make people understand and deliver what they want. As we are going to deliverfor our customers every customer is unique and every customer requirement is much moreunique. For this to happen we need an uncluttered mind and to that extent there are no broadrules at all. So, if you ask me about the boundaries for discipline there is only one that ismeeting customer deadlines.

A dialogue with Mr.

Sridhar

Krishnamurthy

Co-Founder & Director,

Kelsa Solutions By Aakansha

Shukla and Ayon Kumar

How do you feel being here at

TAPMI?

I was just telling one of your colleagues

that work is about what you live for. I am

doing my job and by the end of the

month I’m going to get some salary. So,


‘ ’Disha

Meeting customer’s deadlines and keeping employee happy - is it possible to

manage both?

Yes, It is absolutely possible. I will tell you two major reasons for it. One of them being, the

moment I start enjoying my work I don’t look at what time I’m concluding my work. The

moment somebody tells me you better conclude by this time, I look more at the clock than my

work. The ethos of a company lies in the ability to allow them to open up. We are an extremely

transparent company. Every month we have meeting with our people where we talk about not

only just the top line but also the bottom line, new customers, what did we deliver etc. Everyone

knows how the company has performed in the past and is performing today. Every employee

knows, if we made profits in the month of June or if we didn’t in the month of July. They also

know if we have made profits then what do they get out of it right there.

What is the performance management system that Kelsa follows?

Having worked in large organizations before, I feel that too much of structured systems hinder

the creativity of the employees. We have a clear defined system that is key result oriented. The

employees know what to deliver, at what state they should deliver, what is the value added inputs

they would require from us to deliver. They have very well defined requirement and delivery.

There is no ambiguity whatsoever. So, they are measured against their delivery and also based on

what the customer thinks about the delivery. If the customer is happy, then they would definitely

have done a great job. Our major purpose lies in satisfying the customer to the maximum. That is

how our system works.

So your organization is mainly customer centric?

Absolutely. We live well because of our customers. I always believe that the food on my table is

because of the customers.

What is your approach to understanding customer demand? How do you

know what is the current trend?

It is definitely a challenge for a young, vibrant and growing consulting organization like Kelsa.

The challenge is to manage the current trends in the marketplace, understand them, read them

and look at where it can be deployed. At Kelsa, we believe that the maturity of the organization

will decide what it wants. We do facilitate the customers to think in those lines. By facilitator

what I mean to say is that we objectively make them aware of the pros and cons of the alternative

and give them the power to make the right choice. This approach has played a key role in

understanding the customer demand and the current trends of the market.


A piece of advice to young MBA students?

I don’t believe in giving advice. But I would like to conclude saying that you people have plenty

of opportunities. This is a great place to study. The environment is phenomenal. So, try and take

the maximum benefit out of it. As an individual, how you can make the best use of the resources

available to you should be your point of focus.

A dialogue with

Ranjana AnandDirector – HR, Optimal

StrategixBy Kanika Lungani

With so many years of

successful work behind you

what has been your success

mantra thus far?

Hard work, hard work and hard work.

You have to be persistent in what you

want to do and where you want to go.

Every time I took up a job, I did not

look at it as a job but rather as a career.

When one wants a job one can get it

wherever one wants. But one has to

think in the lines of making a career out

of it. Only when you think along those lines can you achieve your goal or what is on your mind

or whichever way you want to take your career goals.

Since you have worked in so many diverse industries, how different was your

work in these industries?

Very different. I started my career with an ophthalmology institute where I was managing

education programs. Almost after a decade I was on the other end. So I worked in the dean’s

office, managing all the educational programs. I understood thoroughly how an MBA program

works. Then I got an opportunity to go abroad, I went to Dubai where I worked with S.P. Jain

Center of Management.

After that I decided to make a conscious shift to the corporate world while I was doing my major

in HR because I had seen the MBA expanse and I wanted to see where this leads – I myself had

no experience in the corporate world. After 15 years in from the field of medicine and education I

shifted to the corporate industry. Then joined an IT company in Dubai. It was a sudden shift and I

realized that the ground reality was different. Everyday I’d get a shock because of the slangs they

used, the manner in which they talked. Everything seemed so different. It was a complete

contrast but then I thought the sooner I adapt the better for me.

Then I learned the tricks of the trade. It’s all about how you learn. The more you do self-learning

the better it is for you.

Since you have had a quite an interaction with the MBA world, I think it’s fair enough that Iask you that what exactly do you look for in an MBA graduate?


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They have to be focused at first. “Just because I have done an MBA I should get the best job” should never be an approach. These day students say five years down the line I want to be a CEO or an entrepreneur, but that’s not the ground reality. It may happen but it requires a lot of hard work and won’t happen within a flash. So when we look at an MBA graduate we look at their interests, whatever they have studied, how well are they able to apply these concepts. If someone has done some other kind of job and has now come for an MBA then they should be clear why they took this decision. As soon as I see a resume I know whether the candidate is right for the job or not; especially now when I’m into research.

When I see the resumes today, I observe that children don’t think about the careers rather they go for big paying jobs. It should not be the case. If they act along these lines it will neither help them or the company.

Now sticking to Disha theme I want to know what is the future of HR inIndia.

HR initially was only a support function where we just had to type offer letters and give it,that’s all; there was no more involvement. But today things are different. HR is no longer anadmin support. Businesses have started to accept the fact that HR is also a core part of themanagement. It acts as a business partner. Only when the HR group understands what the needand requirements of the business is, they can HR support more, engage it’s the employees in abetter way and get the best out of them.

It starts from the scratch. Management explains HR the goal and vision of the company. ThenHR starts to work along those lines. Then the whole process starts right from recruitment-whatkind of people you want to hire, what kind of culture you want the organization to adapt etc.

This is the age of technology. So how easily do you see technology blending inwith HR functions?

Earlier, everything was manual. Technology has helped a lot in the recent times. We use a lotof softwares to keep all the date in place. Whether it is the personal side of employees or theprofessional side data remains in a safer and better place. Usually large businesses use suchsoftwares which helps in ease of the work.

What kinds of challenges have seen with such technologies?

We had PeopleSoft and SAP. SAP for payroll and PeopleSoft for HRIS. All the data was put inthere. It was easy to pull out data you needed about an employee. Even the performance datawas online. Everything was available. Hence, it’s very easy when it is technology based.

It’s difficult when you are in the phase of sticking to pen and paper or you want to convert itinto digital data. It becomes a challenge when you have to convince the management to getsuch a software to incorporate that into the system.

One thing you felt that the Indian professions lacked that professionals fromother countries had?

I think that the hierarchy in India gets into people too much. But in the west people don’t reallycare about that. There we didn’t have so many levels and people didn’t really care about thelevels. They are more into their job functions. Here people are obsessed with designations. Inthe west it is nothing like that. My operations manager was not really an operations manager.He would have been equivalent to a VP or a director in Indian context. He wasn’t reallybothered. He said how does that matter - I know I lead the team whether I’m the team leaderor a manager and they would all sit together and eat or watch soccer. That is something Ibelieve is not possible in India. People are very much into ivory towers. So conscious of theirdesignations that they don’t associate with people below their ranks. That is something Ibelieve is not needed.

A dialogue with

Prabhkar Patil

Joint Director, SEBI

By Shweta Varma

To start, I’d like to ask you as to

how well regulated do you think

are the capital markets in India?

There is a school of thought which

advocates lesser government

intervention and greater freedom

in capital market regulations.

What is your opinion on this?

In India, SEBI is a statutory body and

accountable to the Parliament. It’s that that

there is a mandate given, complete

regulations at different points of time

depending upon the dynamics of the market which are brought in for creating a healthier market

environment…and to the best of my knowledge, the developments that have taken place over a

period of time are very healthy. One of the goals was to protect the interest of the investors

besides the goal of developing the market and regulating the market - basically, the perception

that the control is not very strong. We keep to our objectives and keep making amendments and

new regulations because that’s what the market demands. As the market evolves, so do we.

But when you compare them to the capital markets in the US, it is evident that

there is a lot more relaxation of rules over there, what in a way led to the 2008

financial crisis. Do you think there needs to be a change in the kind of

regulatory system in India?

In India, there is more of a role based regulatory framework, and when we try to compare our

markets with western or European markets then the regulatory involvement is at par. The

difference arises when we talk about the market participants. In Europe and America, there is a

large amount of institutional participation whereas in India there is significant non-institutional

participation. The reason behind what happened in the US and Europe was because of the kind of

entities which existed in the market, and the type of financial products which are available.

Here, in India, there are more standardized instruments and it works well for us. You have seen

lots of fraudulent events happening in the past such as the Satyam case, and the Sahara case

where to protect the investors we have asked them to repay the money. In general, we have a


‘ ’Finomenal


perception that the western environment is better. But with respect to Indian capital markets, I

believe, we have done our best. We have achieved dematerialization at a much faster pace than

the developed parts of the world.

The FSLRC has recommended creating a UFA by merging SEBI, FMC, IRDA

and PFRDA. What is your opinion? Should all the regulatory organizations be

merged into one?

SEBI has been created by the executive and we have been looking after the equity, debt and

currency market. Though the currency is more regulated by RBI, SEBI has the mandate to

regulate the trading at Stock Exchanges for price discovery in a fair and transparent manner.

Probably what I feel is that in India we need to develop all sectors, all segments of the market.

We need to focus more on the pension sector, different developments need to take place and the

level of development that has happened in the equity market should be achieved by other

segments as well. This would obviously take time.

What are your thoughts on financial inclusion in India? What kind of

measures could banks and regulatory authorities take to improve the

situation?

We are basically trying to bring greater visibility to investors and inform them that there is a

proper regulatory environment. It has to be stressed that financial savings are very important for

their own future. Today, fortunately we have a large youth population in the country. But as time

passes we will move to an ageing economy as we have seen happen in the developed world. At

that point, everyone would require social protection, to have your own corpus built to take care of

yourself. People need to have a diversified portfolio. So there is a need for educating the people

about these factors.

Do you feel it only the responsibility of the government to ensure financial

inclusion or do you think even private players in the market such as banks

could do something about it?

One of the moves that has come - the Jan Dhan Yojna – is a really good move and is a step

towards that. We need to encourage banks to further this development. If people are aware of

these method of savings, then these Ponzi schemes and moneylenders will find it difficult to

attract them. It is important to be rational and cautious before parting with our hard earned

savings.

The markets have reacted positively to the new government. What is your

opinion on Modi’s government policies?

I think it is more of a strong government coming into power after a gap of almost 20 years which

has rallied the markets. There is proper guidance on how we have to function and that is what is

more important at this point of time. I’m sure that whichever political party is able to exert that

sort of direction will continue this trend of growing the capital market. With the given strength of

the Indian society, we are moving towards a better economy and better prospects.

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Pratibimb Aug-Sep 2014